Troika: Tell us a little bit about your academic and professional background, especially what brought you to Brazil.
Lucy Crichton: My academic background has always been connected to communication and the arts! After a diploma in art and design I moved up to London to study Classical Theatre, delving into the worlds of revolutionary playwrights such as Ibsen, Chekhov, and Shakespeare. I remember the sensation of finally feeling free to study what I really wanted and dreamt about, to work in the theatre! From phonetics to sword fighting, singing, radio and television technique, period dancing, stage fighting, speech, and voice work and so on. Little did I know how many of these skills would serve me later in life!
In the early 90’s I guess I took the path of many young people who were looking to leave the UK to work abroad, and took my TEFL certificate, (teaching English as a foreign language). Another incentive at that time, was that I’d fallen in love with a Brazilian man from Florianopolis, the director of a theatre company I was working with, and we had plans to visit. I remember thinking, from one island to another, it can’t be that difficult!
I guess I have always had friends from different countries and backgrounds, my parents spoke French and my childhood home was often filled with different languages. Above the fireplace in our farmhouse there was an old wooden beam where visitors would leave foreign money in notes and coins. As I child I remember looking up at it in awe and thinking ‘that’s the money of the world and one day, I’m going to visit all those places!’
T: What led you to open your own school and work with very young learners and young learners?
LC: By 2003 I was already using my drama skills in my lessons to get my students to play with the language and express themselves within more meaningful contexts. I could see how this type of approach motivated them and brought more joy to the process. I was teaching children and teenagers and had worked in a few local schools but couldn’t see where my methodology and principles fitted into a conventional system of top-down knowledge, memorizing and testing.
The Secret Garden was born out a of a need to embrace the younger learner and offer a humanistic whole language experience, respectfully observing and supporting childhood while offering essential ingredients for the child’s overall developmental path. I also wanted to be able to support families by exchanging practices and sharing knowledge about children and childhood. I wanted to see more art, more music, and more free play within the school context.
T: Many people see your school as something unique. Why do you think it is so? What makes it unique, in your opinion?
LC: I’m so proud of my school, it’s definitely unique. The learning space has always been an important element for me, so the aesthetics, the chosen materials and the natural light that comes into the classroom makes a huge difference in lowering anxiety and offering a calm and cozy environment. There are just four classrooms in our school which ‘breathe’ the personalities of each group. There are paintings, posters and poems covering the walls, showing the student’s identities, and making the space their own. In all the little details, we try to encourage observation and a place where children can build on new ideas.
The school is in my back garden where there is a wooded area to play, explore and run. I think that the families who are part of our school community want something different, they want their children to learn gently, to be seen and supported at each step. Now after the pandemic, parents and caregivers are giving more value to nature and are always enchanted when they see the school surroundings. If children don’t have access to the natural world, I think their vital energy is always challenged, so we need to create these spaces where children can discover themselves.
It is so easy to forget that “There are three teachers of children: Adults, other children and their physical environment” Loris Malaguzzi. (1993)
We currently have a waiting list of 40 students and there is a reason for this. The school is small yes, but it has never been about business, I have always wanted it to be a personal, approachable, hand-made school with loving teachers.
T: How can the contact with nature and storytelling contribute to children`s development?
LC: Anything you teach inside the classroom can be taught outside too! Offering opportunities to be outside with students brings a different feel to learning and collaboration. The expanse of nature teaches us constantly, through the ever-changing colours and shapes, the textures, and the sounds. These all help the young child to connect to the here and now and the sense of being alive, a feeling that might otherwise be diminished by white walls, concrete, and loud noisy classrooms.
Storytelling, one of my passions as you know, has so many advantages for young learners as it brings a natural and relevant context to language and learning. It helps children to develop their concentration skills, excites their curiosity and helps their imagination to expand. It’s a collective, all involving activity that takes us on a journey, exciting our senses and stimulating us to create further questions and ideas. Reading or telling a story outside can not only be relaxing, but it almost always brings a special atmosphere, the wind in the trees or the squark of a bird!
Ken Robison was right when he said, “Human resources are like natural resources; they’re often buried deep. You have to go looking for them. They’re not just lying on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves.” Offering a diversity of surroundings within a school setting will always contribute positively to childhood development.
T: What are the key principles to bear in mind when working with young learners and very young learners?
LC: I think the starting point for teaching younger children should be to observe and study as much as we can about childhood development from a wide range of perspectives, because there are so many different theories about childhood out there. Let us remember that societies, beliefs, and cultures deeply affect what childhood means. Each theory will have a vision of the child and as teachers, we must discover what we ourselves believe in, then constantly keep questioning the so called ‘childhood myths!’
Know that children need to move their bodies and test their strengths, before they are ready to sit down and listen, that they need to paint, make mud pies, poke holes in the sand and sculpture shapes out of clay before they are ready to hold a pencil.
Keep asking questions such as, Is earlier really better? How important is a play-based approach to learning? What practices are developmentally appropriate for each age range? What if we taught the way children learn? Does everything have to have a learning intention, or can we offer activities purely to spark joy?
If education is to improve, teacher’s voices need to be heard! First, we need to stand up and be proud to say we are young learner educators! If we want change, we must present the facts to administrators and policy makers with clear examples from our daily practices and never give up protecting, empowering, and revolutionizing what childhood means!
Our work goes way beyond the cognitive skills. We are the child’s social emotional mentor, so in our practice, we must be both active and reciprocal.
T: What mistakes do you feel are usually made with this age group and how can teachers be better prepared to deal with them?
LC: We all make mistakes and sometimes wrong the child, so finding a support system of experienced professionals who you can go to for advice, can make, or break your love of working with children!
If you can really hear them, if you allow them to create and initiate their own activities, if you can trust them with the truth, then you will see how truly amazing they are. Children are very resilient and forgiving too, but first we must build a loving connection to each one, where the sense of trust and respect overrides any insecurities and doubts. Above all, we need to be human, warts and all!
It’s not always possible, due to availability or financial reasons, for schools to have older wiser and experienced teachers working with very
young learners and I think this is such a pity, especially for the child’s families who so often need that extra support and guidance from someone who knows. We also need more opportunities for male teachers to work in this sector. I know a few wonderful Brazilian male teachers who do such beautiful work.
Teacher knowledge is built over time, through daily experiences and practices. Academic knowledge is essential, but the real learning for the teacher happens in the classroom, every single day!
T: Let’s talk a bit about your publishing career. How did it start? What are your most valued accomplishments?
LC: My publishing career started in 2008 when I was invited to write a two-level primary course book in Argentina. Luckily for me, my co-author was more experienced, so I had a professional to give me guidance and support. I wrote all the stories and songs, the end of year plays and designed the cut-out pages, so grateful to have the theatre and art background to lean on. The series was successful, so we went on to write a second edition. Fifteen years later, I still work with publishers and teachers there today.
Following that, other opportunities came my way from different countries, the UK, the USA, and finally my beloved Brazil! I have been so lucky to contribute to English learning here and although super tough to run a school, give workshops and write at the same time, I love a challenge, and I will never give up on doing my best for children.
During the years, I have worked with some brilliant publishers, editors and authors, and been offered so many incredible opportunities. Both editions of our five-level series for Brazil were used is some public schools too, which means the world!
Most recently I have been writing for the bilingual market using authentic artworks and maker projects. I’m so thrilled to see more creative learning being offered in schools at last!
Perhaps my most valuable accomplishment this year was being a finalist in the Eltons Awards for excellence in course innovation with a series for preschoolers. It’s so exciting to have your vision in education recognized.
T: What is your advice for professionals who are beginning to write materials in general and for VYL and YL in particular?
LC: I think the best materials writers are obviously the ones who know what it’s like to be in the classroom and to understand the nuances of classroom management for example, student’s different skills sets and capabilities. There are many different sectors to write for and we must become experts in each one, visiting classrooms, talking to teachers, observing students and again, asking constant questions!
Discipline is super important too, keeping to deadlines, creating a clear dialogue with your editors, asking for help and clarification when needed.
Flexibility…oh yes… because many of the incredible ideas you’ll have will be cut or modified. In one of our author teams, we used to joke that it was like having our angel’s wings clipped a little bit, but books need to sell and there are many nuances to the editorial market.
However, if there’s something you find so deeply important to childhood education you should stand your ground! We have already come a long way in improving the images in books. We now have much more inclusion and diversity, attention to details and beauty. English course books can and should look like gorgeous literature books and not ugly cartoons illustrations surrounded by black lines! Our children deserve intelligent, thought-provoking pages that uplift them bring positivity and the love of lifelong learning!
I’ll finish with another quote from Loris Malaguzzi, the theorist behind the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood learning.
“The learning process is a creative process. It is the ability to construct new connections between thought and objects that brings about innovation and change; taking known elements and creating new connections.”
The interviewee: Lucy Crichton is an ELT educator, young learner specialist and materials writer based in Brazil. She writes for the primary and pre-primary classrooms with a focus on the whole child, meaningful contexts, diversity and inclusion. She has given lectures all over Latin America and in Europe and Asia. She runs her own school, The Secret Garden, which attends children and teenagers. She calls this place her language laboratory where she uses, art, dance, drama, yoga, gardening and cooking to teach what she calls ‘Living English’. Her teaching philosophy comes from her deep love and respect for children.
